News

The Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership has submitted a first draft EU Structural and Investment Funds Strategy to the Department for Business & Innovation, which, when finalised, will help to guide the growth of the local economy.

The focus of the strategy is to achieve the full potential of the Black Country economy by targeting public investment at tackling barriers to growth and improving economic resilience and inclusion.

Supporting start-ups, competitiveness and innovation in high value manufacturing (HVM) and other areas with the potential for growth is identified as a key action, which will also help to generate higher quality job opportunities.

To do so, the strategy seeks to address the supply and viability gap in sites and infrastructure required to meet the new type of growth, addressing low skills and the ability of local people to compete in the local labour market.

It also means addressing the quality of life factors that will encourage those who obtain jobs to stay in the Black Country and increase spend back into the local economy.